The secret concrete garden

Ana Gonzalez flies above the half pipe at the Shred Shed, a key club skating park north of Madison.

Sepi “Neon” Shokri stands on her roller skates in the doorway of a warehouse and scans the parking lot. “There are only six key holders and the cell phone reception inside is bad so I come out here every so often to check for people,” Neon says. After a few minutes a car pulls up. A man rolls down the window and shouts out: “Is this the skate shack?” “Yup,” says Neon. “Okay, I found you!”

Heading back into the warehouse, located a half-hour north of Madison, we walk — and skate — down a cement ramp, through two doorways covered with plastic sheeting and past hundreds of pallets piled high with seed bags. Tucked into the back corner of a huge, dank room we find the Shred Shed, a hidden indoor skate park founded by Neon.

Music plays from a small speaker as 15 to 20 people wearing roller skates, helmets and pads socialize and take turns on equipment like a half-pipe, quarter-pipe and a rail. As we walk up a group of three skaters hold hands in a line to assist the middle skater who is practicing going down the small ramp of the quarter pipe. The novice makes it down the ramp and the others cheer.

While Neon is giving a tour of the space, she stops mid-sentence and yells “Yeah, Gorge!” as she notices a friend drop into the half-pipe for the first time.

McKinzie “Gorge” Myszka later explains: “I couldn’t stand on skates last August. I tried that three times on the half pipe a month ago and ate it.”

According to Neon, this is exactly why she wanted her own skate park. “The mission of the Shred Shed is to create a positive, joyful and supportive skate park for people of all ages, skill levels, genders and races,” Neon says. “There can be a weird vibe at skate parks and it can be intimidating — I just want to encourage people to get on skates because it’s such a happy thing.”

The skate park is a key club, meaning you need someone with a key to get inside, and the location is a secret — “that’s how DIY spots are,” Neon notes. But new skaters are always welcome (just contact Neon through the Shred Shed’s Instagram page). “The Shred Shed is by friends, for friends,” Neon says. “But if you want to be friends with us then we’ll be friends with you.”

Originally from Los Angeles, Neon, who prefers going by her “skate name,” moved to Appleton for college in 2008; she started roller skating in 2012. The next year she moved to Madison and was recruited to play in the Madison Roller Derby league. Neon competed for several years and played with the Iranian World Cup team in Manchester, England, in February 2018. “My mom came to the United States from Iran in the late ‘70s when she was 17,” Neon says. “She used to roller skate to her job at Burger King.”

A month after the World Cup, Neon suffered a bad concussion during a roller derby match and officially retired from the league last September. “Prior to retiring I got back into ramp skating,” Neon says. “My physical therapist recommended I find a way to keep skating — it’s part of my identity. I am a roller skater.”

So now Neon hopes to build a community of skaters through the Shred Shed. That’s how she got connected to Keely “Psycho Keeler” Campbell, another Shred Shed keyholder, who played derby in Florida before moving here.

“About six months ago I heard about the Shred Shed and thought ‘that sounds super rad!’” Campbell says. “I Instagrammed Neon and asked if I could help build ramps.”

Campbell knows the surfing and skating culture can be intimidating and unwelcoming. “The Shred Shed is so laid back,” Campbell says. “It’s a secure place that supports newbies and Neon is the best cheerleader.”

Invention of roller skates:1760 by Joseph Merlin in London Merlin debuted his invention at a party while playing violin, according to The History of Roller Skating by James Turner: “Joseph Merlin was not a good skater. He couldn’t control his speed or command his skates to go in the desired direction, and wildly crash-landed into a huge and expensive mirror, smashed it to bits, severely wounded himself, broke his violin, and sent roller skating technique back to the drawing board.”

1863: James L. Plimpton patents two-by-two roller skates

1866: First roller rink opens to the public in the converted dining room of the Atlantic House, a Newport, Rhode Island, resort hotel.